Samphire Hoe

Kent Sea Fishing Forum Birthday Bash

The first 'birthday bash' for the Kent Sea Fishing Forum was held at Samphire Hoe on Saturday night/Sunday early hours, 11th - 12th June 2011.

Around 13 members turned up for a great session of fishing, a bit of 'craic' and a bit of a barbeque.  It all kicked off at around 10am Saturday morning, with Jeff, the organiser being the first down there, followed by yours truly about 11am and then a steady stream of guys followed.  It was fairly windy and looking quite ominous with heavy rain clouds right across the area.  First a bit about Samphire Hoe in case you don't know much about the area.

Samphire Hoe came about from the spoil dug out for the Channel Tunnel close to Dover.  It seems that it has always been on the cards to have some sort of tunnel across to France, ever since 26th January 1843 when 185 barrels of gunpowder were used to blow a large section of the cliff and provide a platform that the Dover to Folkestone railway line could be constructed on.  This was because at the time, the sea no longer directly eroded the cliffs.  There have been various attempts ever since but it finally came to fruition with the opening of the now, Channel Tunnel in 1994 by our Queen and President Mitterand. Samphire Hoe was officially opened to the public on July 17th 1997.

Obviously digging the Channel Tunnel was going to create an enormous amount of 'spoil'.  It was decided that the best way to dispose of it and have the best effect on the enviroment was to reclaim land back from the sea.  There was already access to the site through a tunnel in the cliff due to the discarded 1970 attempt at building a tunnel.  They built large artificial lagoons and filled them with the 'spoil' using massive JCB's.

Today it's a great place with wild life and fauna being introduced to the area.  Adders are often seen as are foxes, (more of the foxes later), rabbits, weasels, hedgehogs and mice.  There has also been over 140 species of birds recorded since the opening of Samphire Hoe.  A credit to those who had the foresight to envisage such a place.  There is over a mile of sea wall for us guys and girls to fish from, so normally plenty of space without getting too crowded. Plenty of the area is accessible for wheel-chair users and it has a shop selling bits and bobs plus you can get a bite to eat and a cuppa tea, (nice), with toilets built into the little complex in the middle of the site.

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A few pictures of the 'meet' with a bit of a report thrown in.

Arrival at Samphire Hoe. Met with a strong wind and an ominous sky!

From the off Jeff, who runs the forum and organised this 'meet' was into a few nice Ballen Wrasse.  One pictured here.

Not long after Davesea and Stinky arrived and set up beside Jeff.

Jeff and Davesea with Tim in the background setting up his gear.

A few fish started coming over the wall and a good time was had by all.  There were very few tackle losses despite the warnings of a few who didn't want to fish the 'meet' and decided instead to be negative and probably put one or two off fishing at the Hoe, which was a pity really because it was great to put faces to names and make a few new friends.  There is always more to fishing than just landing the good, the bad and the ugly all the time.  This was a well organised and pleasant birthday bash for the forum members and full credit to Jeff for that. The weather turned out quite good to be honest and most of the bad weather seemed to pass over and land on Deal a few mile further up the coast!  Stayed windy but that wasn't too bad at all.

Tim with a Dogfish - he did well over the course of the night.

Stinky and a dogfish.  I think you can see what's being said here, "What an ugly looking critter you are!" - - - and I wonder what Stinky is thinking!

Les with a Pout, quite a few of these were caught and one or two to a good size.

Tim with a Bass around the 2lb mark.  I must thank Tim for all the tea he made me throughtout the night, right up until we left at 5.30am Sunday morning!
Kept me going a treat it did - thanks mate.

A Pouting caught by Merris and his young son, Kierian I do believe but will stand to be corrected if I'm wrong.
Now, talking of Kierian, he had a fish on which he struggled to get to the surface of the water as he was fishing down the side of the wall.
His dad took over and when it came to the surface it was a stonking big BASS!
I went over with a small drop net to try to help but it was just too big for the net. Jeff ran to his car to get his drop net but just as he got back the fish bent the hook straight and lived to fight another day. There have been a few guesses to it's size which are irrelevent really but I was right above it looking down and when it rolled on it's side once or twice you could see the true scale of the fish!
It is quite easy to over estimate any fish which we all do from time to time, the fish that started out at around 1lb ends up about 5lb by the time we get home to the wife.  BUT I will say that if this fish wasn't into double figures then I certainly need new glasses!
We all felt absolutely gutted for the lad, it would have been some fish to brag about for a very long time but it is still down there so maybe next time Kierian.

Tim with a nice Pollock. During the night a fox made an appearance and tried it's best to get Tim's Bass, it came within a few metres of him before being chased away.  It did keep coming back for another go but finally gave up the ghost towards dawn.  Never got a pic of it but should have.

Jeff praying towards the east for guidance!

Jeff, Stinky, Sarge and JW enjoying the 'barbie', made for a good break in the proceedings.

Tim here doing the 'honours' and cooking the food.  Kept him from catching more fish than he already had!

Sorry, no it didn't!

Jeff doing his Frank Spencer impression for the lads!

Yours truly with his only fish of the night and as it has already been said elsewhere, the camera's batteries must have been running down as I have jet black hair and weigh far, far less than what I appear to in this picture!

Folk started to trundle off to bed after a while and Tim and myself, being 2 of the younger-set, as you can see by the pic's, stuck it out until about 5.30am - dawn broke about 3.30am.

Samphire Hoe as it looked at 5.30am, really peaceful and a picture as the sun shone.

Well, a good birthday bash, I think everyone enjoyed it and we all got to make or meet a few friends. Roll on the next 'bash'.
A very good venue and looking forward to fishing it again.
To see other reports and pictures about the birthday meet, you can do so by going to the Kent Sea Fishing Forum.

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